Save Article

Mexico’s TV Giveaway Spawns Questions

Government’s mass purchase of digital sets for welfare recipients was marred by corruption, people close to process say

By

Santiago Pérez

Sept. 28, 2016 6:53 p.m. ET

MEXICO CITY—Mexico, long considered a free-market bastion in Latin America, recently carried out one of the region’s biggest government giveaways: a $1.3 billion program to hand out close to 10.5 million flat-screen television sets to the country’s poor.

The government touted the program, aimed at low-income mothers, senior citizens and other welfare recipients, as a model of social inclusion and the best way to push the country...